You Can Go Your Own Way

Did you ever love a book until you read a dozen negative reviews on Amazon? You started seeing what those other people saw in the novel, and then started agreeing with them. You saw their point, and maybe you were too quick to fall in love.

Sometimes it happens the other way. Often times in fashion I see a trend and swear I will NEVER wear it and six months later it’s in my closet. It looked hideous on the runway, looked hideous on that A-lister, but after seeing a couple bloggers and B-listers in it, the darn thing grew on me.

Sometimes getting the opinions of others can help greatly. It may give you more insight into a book, a speech, a work of art, even a pair of boots. And sometimes your true feelings get lost in the masses. Try as you might, it’s easy to get caught up in a mob mentality and agree with others even if you have some doubt in your gut.

A stylish woman doesn’t doubt her gut. She knows herself and knows what she feels, what she knows, what she loves. She may learn from others’ experiences, but meditates on new information and decides how it can improve or deepen herself and her own beliefs. She doesn’t fall for the mob mentality.

The blogosphere is a tough place to be an individual. People will judge your post or your comment before they even finish reading the first sentence. Everyone has a strong opinion, and that opinion is even more strong when the person can be anonymous. The same holds true for all the news sites where folks go bonkers in the comments, missing the point of the article and immediately launching into their personal beliefs. Even in everyday society we get caught in the mass hype, be it what salad chain we go to at lunch, what TV show we watch after work, where we drink our coffee.

There’s nothing wrong with liking what the masses like… as long as you honestly do like it. There’s nothing wrong with disliking what the masses dislike… again if you honestly believe it. Following with the crowd is what girls do in high school, not what grown women do in adulthood.

You’ve earned the right to think for yourself. You are an adult – you pay your own way, you live your own life, you created that brain full of facts and figures and the right amount of frivolity. Your opinion isn’t any less important than others. So believe in yourself, and your opinion. Trust your gut, and have the confidence to go your own way. And when you encounter grown-ass women acting like bullies… call them out. They have a right to their opinion, they have a right to share their opinion, but no one has the right to tell you what to believe, what to like, what to hate, what to wear, and who to be.

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